Saturday, March 10, 2018

"Disgraced Parkland Officer Lied, Radio Dispatch Recording Reveals"

As
gunman Nikolas Cruz went on a rampage at Stoneman Douglas High School
on February 14, firing on students and teachers until his semiautomatic
AR-15 jammed, Broward Deputy Scot Peterson cowered outside behind the
safety of cover, "pointing his gun at nothing."

Peterson publicly stated that he thought gunfire was happening
outside on campus, not inside the building - perhaps to justify not
going in to stop the shooting which claimed 17 lives.
He lied.
Internal radio dispatches released by the Broward County Sheriff's Office Thursday reveal Peterson immediately focused on Building 12 and radioed that gunfire was happening "inside."
What's more - Peterson warned his fellow officer to stay away -
despite wounded students and staff inside who required assistance.
Broward Sheriff's Office (BSO) policy requires deputies to engage an
active shooter and eliminate the threat.
“Do not approach the 12 or 1300 building, stay at least 500 feet
away,” shouted a panicked Peterson as people screamed in the
background.

The timeline of events and audio recording of police radio chatter shed new light on the response by the BSO.

The records appear to support Broward Sheriff Scott Israel’s
contention that Peterson, a longtime school resource officer, should
have entered Building 12 to engage Cruz and try to prevent deaths. They also appear to show that other deputies may have refrained from rushing into the school at the direction of Peterson and a Parkland captain.
The response by the agency has been the subject of national scrutiny,
and is currently under review by the Florida Department of Law
Enforcement. -Miami Herald

BSO police union president Jeff Bell welcomed the release of the audio and timeline of events.
“It certainly backs up that he never went into the school,” Bell said
of Scot Peterson. “At one point he says to keep back 500 feet. Why
would he say that?”Timeline of events via the Miami Herald
Cruz was dropped off at the school by an Uber at 2:19 p.m. Two
minutes later, he entered Building 12. He began firing within 15
seconds. Peterson, at the time, was near the administration building.
At 2:22 p.m. the fire alarm was triggered, blaring throughout the
entire campus. The first 911 call also went out, via Coral Springs
emergency dispatch center.
“Be advised we have possible, could be firecrackers. I think we have
shots fired, possible shots fired —1200 building,” Peterson radioed at
2:23 p.m.
At that moment, according to the video, Peterson arrived at the
southeast corner of Building 12, where he appeared to remain “for the
duration of the incident.” “We’re talking about the 1200 building, it’s
going to be the building off Holmberg Road,” Peterson said frantically
seconds later.
“Get the school locked down, gentlemen!” he shouted.
As the shots intensified, other deputies began racing to the scene,
radioing in. One believed he heard shots by the football field,
something Peterson mentioned in a statement released last month by his
attorney, arguing that the school resource deputy thought shots were
coming from outside the 1200 building.
“BSO trains its officers that in the event of outdoor gunfire one is
to seek cover and assess the situation in order to communicate what one
observes with other law enforcement,” Peterson’s attorney said.
But Peterson, according to the timeline and radio dispatches reviewed by the Miami Herald, remained focused on Building 12.
“All right... We also heard it’s by, inside the 1200,” Peterson said at 2:25 p.m.
Joseph DiRuzzo, Peterson’s attorney, did not respond to an email and a
call to his office. Peterson resigned eight days after the shooting
rather than be suspended without pay pending an internal affairs
investigation.
As the shooting progressed, calls began “blowing up” the 911 call
centers. Students were spilling out of the campus. Peterson radioed to
make sure “no one comes inside the school.”
At 2:27 p.m., six minutes after Cruz went into Building 12, the
shooting stopped. Cruz ditched his AR-15 in the third-floor stairwell
and left.
Five seconds later, Peterson radioed for officers to “stay at least
500 feet away at this point.” A dispatcher repeated, “Stay away from 12
and 1300 building.”
Coral Springs officer Tim Burton had just arrived at Douglas High. At
2:28 p.m., he radioed out the first description of Cruz: “White male
with ROTC Uniform Burgundy Shirt” — exactly what the shooter was wearing
when he was arrested later. How Burton obtained the information was
unclear from the timeline.
At 2:29 p.m., as officers began encountering wounded students, Burton met with Peterson outside Building 12.
The chaos continued. Deputies tried getting into Building 13 next
door, but it was locked. A fleeing student appeared to be stuck in a
fence; a deputy asked for bolt cutters. One deputy called for a command
post to be set up.
“We need to get units in here so we can try to find this guy,” a deputy radioed.
At 2:31 p.m., BSO Capt. Jan Jordan, whose supervision of the response
has also been scrutinized amid questions about whether she slowed
police response by ordering a perimeter, speaks for the first time: “Do
we have a perimeter set up right now and everyone cleared out of the
school?”
“That’s negative,” a dispatcher responds.
It was at 2:32 — 11 minutes after the shooting began — that four
Coral Springs officers and two BSO deputies made the first police
entrance into the building, helping to “extract a victim.”
Jordan is back on the radio one minute later: “I want to make sure
that we have a perimeter set up (unintelligible), all the kids are
getting out, but we need to shut down around this school.”
By 2:35 p.m., officers were seen transporting a victim on a golf
cart. One minute after that, 10 officers burst into Building 12 through
an east-side entrance.
Down the street, Cruz had entered a Walmart and bought a drink at the
Subway inside. At 3:40 p.m., a Coconut Creek officer saw Cruz and
arrested him without incident. Cruz was indicted Wednesday on 17 counts
of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted murder.
The Broward Sheriff’s Office released the timeline Thursday following
weeks of mounting pressure to make the details of its police response
public. The Miami Herald, South Florida Sun-Sentinel and CNN sued the
agency last month to force it to release surveillance video outside of
the 1200 building, and their lawyers argued in court Thursday that it
was in the public interest to release the footage.
Also Thursday, the sheriff’s office released 911 calls received by
dispatchers and police documents related to its handling of calls to
Cruz’s various addresses detailing his family’s troubled domestic life.
The sheriff’s office tweeted about the case Thursday evening.
“BSO agreed in court today with the media that surveillance video
from outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High should be released publicly.
Legal exemptions block the release unless a judge approves. The judge
took it under advisement and we hope for a ruling shortly.”

Art For Art's Sake

From rhe Shepherd Express
, Art Kumbalek comes with his column "Art For Art's Sake," more or less every Tuesday. Art's been doing this for more than 30 years, so he must have something to say.

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